The Three Snakes
by RandomNumbers523156
Summary: Gensokyo is no more and Sanae finds herself wandering through the Outside World. However, when she meets a girl named Marry and her group of friends known as The Blindfold Gang, things can improve. Meanwhile, a certain snake plans his return.
1. The Stranger in the Mountains

I do not exist anymore. My existence is now tied to a never-ending wish. I vanished, thanks to those damn gang kids! They defeated me using clichés from a badly written self-help book!

I knew I could stay for millennia doing exactly the same thing, they died all the same and that idiot little girl would always do the same wish! Again, they'd need to win once to put down my perfect scheme…

That's it! Enough of time travel! I will be back and kill those kids once for all…when I managed to exit this place. But I can only exist with a wish, I need wishes. Only if there was a way to the fantasy land I heard the youkai talking about, and I wouldn't need a wish to exist…

Oh…

What is this?...

Ohohoohohoho!

There is so much desire coming from that way. No, this can't be a human, this has to be a monster! Oh, monsters are sooo much easier to manipulate, it's as if this monster was made of desire!

I can feel myself moving… it is calling me! My insides are feeling fuzzies! Ohoho! I can feel, so much desire! And where there is desire… **there is a wish!**

* * *

><p>The Japanese were always proud of their countryside. Even with the advance of the technology, there was a conscious effort to preserve it, for its cultural value, not to mention that the value of natural environments was getting higher each year as they got rarer. However, the effort to preserve them was also increasing as well.<p>

And in one of these natural reserves there was a girl praying in front of a shrine. She had her eyes closed and had her hands joined, mumbling the desires of her heart. However, her ritual was interrupted by the sound of someone tripping. When she turned her head, she saw a girl, or at least it looked like a girl under that light green and white hoodie; she also wore a blue skirt and white sneakers. She also had a green bag on her back.

"Are you alright, young girl?" Mary said, putting on her hood in order to not attract attention to her ivery long/i hair and squatted to see the other hobo girl. Her face was dirty and she smelled like she hadn't showered for a few days. However, she wasn't ugly; her eyes were blue and her hair green, though she could see the root of her hair brown.

"I am," she said, "I just tripped on there…" When the girl's eyes made contact with Mary, she said, "You aren't fully human, are you?"

"AH!" Mary chirped, taken back and tripped, while the girl got up. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Your eyes indicate you're a hybrid, though I can't identify which youkai you descends. I think humans shouldn't have that much hair." The girl said, putting her hands on her pocket. Both hoods fallen; the sunshine contrasted with the green-haired girl's gloomy expression.

"Eh, how do you know?" Mary said; it was pointless attempting to lie in such a situation.

"I'm not too different from you," the girl said, looking at the shrine with a lost look, "Or I used to be not too different from you. However, today I'm just normal; in earlier times we'd be dueling in a danmaku fight." Mary tilted her head, not understanding what she meant by danmaku fight. She got up and walked up to her.

"You were praying on that shrine, right?" The girl asked.

"Y-yes." Mary replied, holding the border of her blue dress. "It's a custom when we visit this place. Do you believe in gods? Or were you offended?"

The girl just blew a raspberry, not in disdain but in nostalgia. "I believe in gods as much as I believe in men. And I know that gods can die." She lowered her head. "Excuse me, sorry for bothering you."

Mary looked at her, walking past her. She took a deep breath and said, "Please, tell me your name."

The girl stopped on her tracks and turned to her. "It's Sanae. Sanae Kochiya."

"Sanae, where are you going?" Mary asked, her expression concerned while she held both hands.

"I don't know…" Sanae looked as if she was almost going to cry. "I don't have anywhere to go…"

"Come with me!"

"Huh?"

"Look," Mary said, her eyes gleaming, "I used to be alone for a long time, but then I made some good friends that were in the same situation as I was. I'm sure they'd be your friends as well."

"I don't know…" Sanae said, glancing aside again.

"Please, miss Sanae, just for a time! You don't have anything to lose!"

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt…" Both she and Mary knew that she had few options and generosity wasn't something to be wasted. Plus, they both knew that a bath wouldn't hurt as well.

"So, it's done!" Mary said, holding Sanae's hands, getting the taller girl flushed with the sudden display of amiability. "You'll love my friends, Sanae!"

"If you say so… What is your name, again?"

"Mary Kozakura." And thus Mary caught her by her wrist and ran to the meeting point.

* * *

><p>"So, why is Mary taking so long?" Kano said, putting his arms behind his head.<p>

"You know Mary," Kido said, leaning against a lamppost with her arms crossed, "She must be praying for every single person she knows. Let her take the time she wants, it's not like we're in a hurry."

"I think I should check out her." Seto said.

"Hibiya told us that this is a place has no security problems," Kido said, "Especially during the day."

"Oh, there she is." Momo said, looking at the end of the path of trees, where Mary was coming with another person. "And she's bringing someone."

"Guys," Mary said, stopping in the middle of the plaza where they were, "This is a friend that I just met. Her name is Sanae."

The Mekakushin that were present looked at the new girl and had mixed reactions: Kido and Shintaro looked at her with inquisitive looks; Seto and Kano smiled and waved at her; while Momo looked at her curious and she looked at her brother; recognizing his inquisitive look, she instinctively took one step back.

Sanae waved at them, trying to crack a welcoming smile – however, she looked like a poor person begging.

"Sanae, huh?" Kano said, walking up to her and bowing to her. "My name is Kano, and these are my friends, Kido, Shintaro and Momo." The first two remained calm, but Momo shyly waved her hand.

"Well, nice to meet you." Sanae said, glancing aside.

"Where did you find her, Mary?" Shintaro asked.

"While I was praying at the forest shrine, I found her." Mary replied. "The reason why I brought her is because she's special.

"How come?" Shintaro asked again.

"S-she deduced that I was a hybrid with a just glance." Mary said, looking down, slightly embarrassed, earning surprised looks from the others. "But she isn't dangerous."

"We have a special snowflake here," Kano said, showing both hands in the air, "Just like us. Tell us about you Sanae."

"Well, I was expelled from my house and now I'm just wandering, depending on people's goodwill." Sanae said, looking at the ground. "I do need help, but I don't want to be a burden for you."

"Sanae, Sanae, Sanae," Kano said, lightly tapping her shoulder and walking around her, "Let me tell you one thing about me: I'm a huge liar. I used to be an even huge liar, but I still think I could swindle the entire city if I had the resources." He then stopped and looked at her. "But one thing this ability made me gain is how to identify lies, as easy as you can tell that Mary is… different. So, care to elaborate us the true reason why you are in the streets, darling?"

Sanae widened her eyes in shock, but then she sighed and said, "I told this lie because you wouldn't believe the truth."

"Sanae," Momo said, calling everyone's attention, "We've been through a lot of situations you wouldn't believe as well. It can't be stranger than it is."

After a few seconds of silence, Sanae decided to talk: "What if tell you there used to be a land that time forgot? That humans coexisted with creatures of legends, gods of folklore? People like Mary were common; where everything humanity gave up for modern world, where magic existed and heroes were real, would you believe that?"

"I guess so…" Kano said, unsure to what reply, although not detecting any hint of deceit in her voice. The others paid attention closely, with skeptical looks.

"This used to be my home. A land where I was a hero, I was a goddess…" she said, running her fingers on her dyed hair. "But then, there was Armageddon Day…" Tears started to form around her eyes and she started to hiccup.

Kido walked to her, bumping on Kano, and hugged her, a rather disgruntled hug (she wasn't a huggy person), but sincere, "It's okay. I've been there, and I know what you're feeling and you don't need to tell anything you don't want to. You're safe with us."

"T-thank you." Sanae replied, feeling better. Somehow, she knew that girl could understand her.

"Alright, let's go." Kano said, putting his hands on his pocket. "We need to convince Hibiya's father to allow a hobo girl in his house."

* * *

><p><strong>A.N.:<strong> This is a project of mine, a crossover between Mekakucity Actors and Touhou. Also, thanks to DarkShiftRising to allow me to use this as an AU of CCC for the background (go check at magnumphoenixzx dot devianart dot com for more info).


	2. Meeting the Gang

Hibiya had invited his friends to spend a weekend on his household, in the Japanese countryside. His father, in spite of being very strict with him, loved the nature – to the point he regularly donated to environment protection agencies; he had a great tract of land that he personally managed it, when he had time to spare. Thus, convincing him to lend his house to Hibiya's friend wasn't as difficult as they tought to be, because they went there with the intention of admiring the nature. It's a pity that Ayano, Ene and Haruka couldn't go with them, due to needing to take additional classes in order to make up for their bad grades; and Hiyori was in a trip to Okinawa with her family (and they didn't allow her to bring Hibiya, much to his dismay).

Now, convincing Hibiya's father to house a homeless like Sanae was the difficult part: after explaining Sanae's situation to Hibiya, he knew that his father would expel her the moment she set up the feet on his house. So the plan was to distract him, until they could make her take a shower (because she did need a bath, as much as she was embarrassed by it, she knew it to be truth) and then make a place for her to sleep in a shed outside the house; they would feed her by passing food under the table; and in Sunday, Kido and Kano would follow take a bus with her and bring.

Of course, all this convoluted plan went straight to the trash bin when Sanae herself presented to the patriarch of the household. However, Sanae gave him a good luck charm. Then, for some reason, he allowed her to stay, as long as Hibiya's friends made sure that she wouldn't cause trouble.

"Why do you think that my father allowed you?" Hibiya asked.

"He's a traditional man," she explained, "He recognized me as a priestess and I invoked hospitality rules." She said, while eating: she held a bowl of rice, and at her side there was a filet, prepared with shoyu; and, as dessert, there were azuki bean cakes, that everyone was sharing. She also had showered herself and wore an old yutaka that Hibiya's cousin left at the house once.

"Wow, father really surprises me when he's dealing with this kind of stuff." Hibiya said, scratching his head. "Sometimes, I feel like he likes trees more than I."

"Hey, now that you're better, mind sharing stuff about you?" Kano said; Kido elbowed him, for his rudeness, or just force of habit.

"It's okay." She said, putting on the table the empty bowl. "I can repeat, because I don't want to forget: there used to be a place where everything that humanity ceased to believe could find a safe haven to continue existing. This place's name was Gensokyo."

"That's a really fitting name!" Momo said, preppy as always, "This makes me want to go there!"

"Momo, less..." Shintaro grumbled.

"Gensokyo was a dangerous place for people who didn't know how to behave, because there was a place for magic, but it was also a place for youkai, beasts and demons."

"Oh...I take it back!" Momo said, making an awkward smile.

"There is more than that," Sanae held both hands at her chest, "I was the priestess of the Moriya Shrine, right at the top of Youkai Mountain. My job was to grant blessings to the people who sought the blessings of Kanako and Suwako."

"Who were them?" Shintaro asked.

"Kanako and Suwako were the goddesses of the shrine. They were together ever since the Great Suwa War and they took care of me ever since I remember of my childhood." Sanae looked down, and made a small, forlorn smile. "Gensokyo had one special rule: youkai should create problems and humans should solve them, thus belief in youkai wouldn't dwindle and make them die and humans could still conjure gods and magic." She looked at the ceiling, with her smile still in her face, "I was part of a world where I could fit perfectly, something I could never expect in this world."

"Feeling good, Sanae?" Seto asked.

"I used to be much better." Sanae said, running her fingers over her dyed hair. "The point is that the spell card rules ensured a period of peace while maintaining the life of Gensokyo. Red-white, no matter how cranky she was, she knew what she was doing back then." This time, she even allowed herself to chuckle, and she placed a hand over mouth.

She stopped to drink a cup of soda and then continued, "Youkai create problem, humans solve them – this was a good system because it ensured less people hurt; that, and the gap hag knew how to enforce it." Her smile faded, and they knew the dark part was coming. "However, it wasn't a perfect system... The vampire of the Scarlet Devil Mansion created a problem that no one solved..."

Silence reigned in the room. No one dared to remember Sanae of the term 'Armageddon Day'. Hibiya wanted to ask something, but Momo placed a hand over his shoulder and shook her head.

"You are here with us now, Sanae. Can I ask how you...left?" Kido asked, being careful with her words.

"Kanako and Suwako brought me to the top of Youkai Mountain, while Gensokyo was being...unmade... And they opened a portal to a place named Heat Daze."

"The Heat Daze!" Momo said, in loud enough voice to scare the others. But, in truth everyone, even Kido and Shintaro, were surprised by what Sanae said.

"How did you survive?" Hibiya asked.

"What did you see there?" Shintaro asked.

"Did you see any bad snake?" Mary asked.

Sanae stopped talking, her jaw was still agape. She didn't expect them to recognize that name or even be aware of its dangers.

"Let's calm down," Kido said, lifting her hands, "And let Sanae talk."

"You seem to be aware of the Heat Daze, so you might know that's a dangerous place...even youkai can't live there, or that's what Kanako told me when she gave me a charm to pass through the Heat Daze into the Outside World. There were people who fled Gensokyo through the Heat Daze, but I don't know what became of them..."

"I'm sorry..."

"No, tell me," Sanae asked, "Tell me how you learned about the Heat Daze."

They told her about how they met; Kano, Kido and Seto were born with red eyes and lost their families until they were adopted by Ayano's father, Tateyama; Tateyama was possessed by an evil snake and Ayano made a plan to get rid of it by killing herself; after that, they left their house and wandered through the country, until they met Marry, who joined them; then, they invited Momo to join them, in order to control her power; then they met Shintaro and Ene and lastly Konoha and Hibiya, and then they decided to take on the snake possessing Tateyama - who proceeded to possess Konoha, creating what they called 'Kuroha' - then, he tried to kill them once more and restart the time loop; however, they managed to convince Marry to wish other thing, so that the time loop would end. Then, Kuroha disappeared, but they supposed that he was used to provide a life force for Hiyori and now they could live happily - however Ayano's father preferred to stay at the Heat Daze with his wife, and Haruka returned with white hair.

"Wow," Sanae said, "it sounds like an anime plot!" She said, her eyes glowing for the first time they saw her.

"It would be a really low budget one, with smeared animation, lack of support character, and everything masked to look deep and people don't complain." Kano said, while Kino elbowed him again.

"But, do you still have your powers?"

"Nope." Kido, with everyone agreeing with that.

"Well, I guess that's enough talk about the Heat Daze," Seto said, "Why don't we watch some anime to forget this?"

"Do you guys watch anime?" Sanae asked, her eyes gleaming.

"Sure!" Seto said, "I guess you have a lot to catch up."

They talked about anime until late in the night; Sanae's knowledge of the 1980's anime and tokusatu was something that impressed them, while they update her with the recent trends; it was clear she loved it. She mentioned that before she went to Gensokyo, she used to live in the Japanese countryside, but didn't dwell much on it. For once, they were satisfied that Sanae was happy.

* * *

><p>Seto woke up in the middle of the night to go the bathroom. It was a fairly simple task, but the summer in the Japanese countryside made difficult for people to sleep. Granted, the heat never bothered Seto much.<p>

What called the attention was what he heard in the varanda.

"...and then, there were dozens of flying saucers in the sky. Green, red and blue, I was there and…"

"Hey, what is happening?" Seto asked.

"Nothing," Mary said. "Sanae was telling me the stories of her adventures in Gensokyo." She was with Sanae and Momo. They were both in their pajamas, sitting down at the entrance of the house. The full moon illuminated the night.

"Gensokyo would be an amazing place," Momo said, "If it still existed, I'd like to see it for myself, I always liked when Shintaro read for me the old tales!"

"Momo, Mary, Sanae needs space." Seto said; his demeanor wasn't proper of people like him, but he still tried to sound authoritative.

"It's okay...what's your name again?" Sanae asked, sounding embarrassed.

"Seto."

"Seto, I have no problem on telling stories about Gensokyo," she smiled at her, sadly, "Because I'm the last proof that Gensokyo ever existed, so the only thing I can do is share the stories of the land that once was. I just don't want to talk about...that day..." she started to shake a bit.

"Alright," Seto said, sitting down besides Mary, "I want to hear your story."

Sanae nodded and continued, "The flying saucers arrived, and behind them there was a youkai, dubbed the Tiny Clever Commander…"

* * *

><p>Sanae remained for the rest of Sunday in Hibiya's household, until they left in the afternoon. In the end, she did have to take the bus, along with Kano and Kido. She slept through most of the travel. When they arrived, they brought Sanae to their hideout, where she spent the night.<p>

The next day was Monday, but it was also a day off from school, so they took advantage to introduce Sanae to the remaining members of the gang: Ene, Haruka and, their proclaimed leader, Ayano.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sanae." Ayano said, bowing to her.

"Thank you." Sanae replied.

"Oh, it's so good to meet you Sanae, my heart is exhilarated!" Haruka said, in a very upbeat tone, without any kind of sarcastic tone. "I'm sure Ene is also very happy to meet you."

"Yeah, what he said." Ene said, with one arm around Haruka's arm, playing a portable videogame.

"Isn't she lovely?" Haruka said, beaming as usual.

"Well, I have to say that you build up a really nice house here." Sanae said.

"Me, Seto and Kido build this hideout over the years, after Ayano disappeared." Kano said. "Thanks to the money we saved from our jobs, looking for good discounts and...other assets."

While Sanae told her story for them, Ene fell asleep. Haruka explained she was narcoleptic, so this happened from times to times. After she was done, Shintaro called Ayano and Kido to talk about something. She excused her and went to another room.

"What do you want to talk about, Shintaro?" Ayano asked.

"Ene has been bugging me about something." Shintaro replied. "I supposed it's about Sanae." He lifted his smartphone on his shoulder height and it turned on, showing Ene's virtual form.

"Master! Master!" She proclaimed, floating on the screen, waving her arms. "While you were listening again to Sanae, I decided to look up her name on the internet."

"Ene, that is not very polite." Shintaro muttered.

"Oh, come on!" She said, putting her hands on her hips, "If there's something people love is when someone looks up their name on the internet. As I was saying, I looked her up in the internet and, guess what?" Shintaro didn't play along and didn't try to guess; Ene pouted and continued talking, "I found that she's nowhere in the internet!"

"And what does that mean?" Kido asked.

"You know what they say: if it's not in the internet, then it doesn't exist. However, Sanae, in a sense, doesn't exist, because I couldn't find anything about her in the internet. And to make things worse: she doesn't appear not even in the government database."

"Ene!" Shintaro said out loud, shaking his smartphone, making the virtual girl get tossed around like a ping pong ball, "How many times I have to order you to not invade the government computers?! If they backtrack you, you'll get me in serious trouble!"

"C'mon, they wouldn't mind a cute avatar of a helpful citizen like me." She said, making a huge smile. "But this isn't the funniest thing: when I looked at the data, it seemed it was overwritten…"

"Which means…" Kido asked, while Shintaro paid close attention to what Ene said.

"That the original data was deleted." Shintaro replied.

"Very observant, Master!" Ene winked at him, while he just grunted. "It makes me wonder, what kind of thing they made to delete her from the national database. However, who made this, made a poor job, since even if you delete something, you don't literally extinguish it from the face of Earth."

"Is that so?" Shintaro asked.

"I also took a photo you shot of her and torrented a facial-recognition program. Also, I accidentally infected your PC with thirteen different virus, sorry."

"What?" Shintaro said out loud, shaking her again.

"The virus part was an exaggeration." Ene said, shaking her head to recover equilibrium. "But I ran her face on the facial recognition software," Shintaro thought of lambasting her again, but he didn't do it, "and I found nothing but one photo." She picked Shintaro's picture folder, "Let me, I think I put it besides his ecchi collection…" Shintaro blushed hard when she said that and hoped that Ayano didn't list her (she did list, but decided to not show to not embarrass him even more). "Ah, here it is!" She returned with a photo: the photo itself was old, though it was in colors, taken by one of those oldest models of camera; it showed a classroom full of students, eight-year old children.

"This photo comes from the blog of a small elementary school from the outskirts of Suwa, in Nagano Prefecture." Ene said, and then putting both photos side to side and making a red marking on Sanae's face and a student from the photo. "I believe this is our little Sanae, the matching is 90.53% sure."

"Hm...Sanae did mention she used to live in the Outside World before Gensokyo." Kido mentioned.

"I also tried to search for Gensokyo in the internet, but AAAAAH!" Ene cried in frustration, with her hands on her head, "The term is too vague! I can't find anything but bad results from crazy conspiracy sites and dictionaries!"

"Serves you well," Shintaro said, "Now stop looking Sanae's personal info."

"As you wish, master!" She bowed and then said, "Besides, it's time to snuggle Haruka!" Ene's avatar unmade itself and disappeared, leaving Shintaro, Ayano and Kido alone.

"Kido," Ayano said, "Would you like to share something?"

"Sanae is not lying." She said, crossing her arms. "I mean, Kano could've guess if she was lying...But I know in my heart she's not lying, because I know exactly what she's been through."

"Kido even hugged her." Shintaro said.

"Oh! You rarely allow people to hug you." Ayano laughed, placing a hand over her mouth. "You didn't even allow me to hug you and then you go there and hug a complete stranger."

"It's not like that, Ayano," Kido said, turning her face around to hide her blush, "That girl needed a hug."

"Of course, Kido." Ayano said. "Sanae can stay with us for a few days. I think no one else but us would listen to her, but let's see what we can learn with her."


	3. A Stranger I Am No More

The next days were much better for Sanae; after days wandering, she could finally sleep on a bed, eat fresh food and have showers. She didn't want to take advantage of their hospitality, so she always helped with the chores, even under the protests of the gang. Their only complaint was that she insisted on spending their money on dying her hair green, which they deemed to be an unnecessary expenditure; the gang couldn't use their powers anymore to facilitate the acquisition of funds, so any superfluous expense was cut; but Sanae decided to do more chores to make up for it.

While Sanae stayed with them, they also tried to search if she had a family. Ene scrutinized every place in the internet, trying to look for any information on the Kochiya family that Sanae was part of. She surely found more than one 'Kochiya', but nothing about a Kochiya that lived next to the shores of Lake Suwa; the information she picked on the government database was still being reconstructed – data is never eliminated, only overwritten, so in theory they could rebuild the data, something Ene and a few friends in the area were working on.

On the other hand, Sanae did mention that she was raised by Kanako and Suwako, and that she was a direct descendent of the goddess of Lake Suwa. This didn't induce much skepticism on the gang, because if beings like Kuroha could exist, it meant that goddesses could still exist; however Sanae explained they both were "dead", almost triggering a flashback of their death on her, so they didn't press much about it.

After she calmed down, Sanae explained that Kanako and Suwako were goddesses, but they were starting to "die" (a word that should be used in a loose sense in this context) because people stopped believing on them; thus, they departed for Gensokyo, where they could live without fear of "dying". And, at Gensokyo, she managed to attain the status of goddess, just like her benefactors – until the fantasy ended.

Sanae talked a lot about Gensokyo, about Kanako and Suwako (Ene couldn't find them on the internet, for some reason, but there were matches with old goddesses; it was likely they changed their names), but she rarely talked about the life in the Outside World, before she went to Gensokyo – unless if it involved movies and anime from the 80s.

The mystery of the disappearance of Gensokyo wasn't as confuse as the mystery of Sanae's past life. This was a problem, because, in order to do things like get enrolled in school, get a job, and other things, a person needed things like an ID card, a number in the social security system, the kind of thing that a fantasy world like Gensokyo wouldn't mind but it was important in a technological society such as the Outside World. Sanae had none of that and it would take a while until they could contact someone in the black market who could provide it, like they did with Marry – and, even so, their experiences with the snakes taught them that they could deceive some people for some time, but they couldn't deceive everyone every time.

"And, to make things worse," Ene said, in her avatar form, from Kido's smartphone, "Master never got his copy of Dueling Defenders. They removed it from the online store after that mass hacking, the servers had to shut down for a while. I heard that it's going to reopen next week, though. I told master that I could torrent it."

"Ene, I like to keep my files to be original." Shintaro said, annoyed. "It seems like your first reaction to everything is to torrent it!"

"Why shouldn't it be?" She said, crossing her arms. "I don't see the point in spending hundreds of thousands of yen on a program that I'll use only once." She then looked at the time.

"Whatever, distract us with the news from the world." Shintaro said, emptying his glass of juice.

"Let's see, oil prices continue falling down, some unrest on the Balkans again, the mayor got involved in a scandal, they're calling it "Hentaigate", your soccer team lost again, I think they'll be relegated… oh, my parents returned. Today is pizza night, see ya later, folks!"

"She's much more talkative when she's in virtual mode." Sanae said.

"Yeah," Shintaro replied, "But sometimes I want her to shut up."

They had just finished the dinner and Marry brought the plates back to the kitchen, being extra-careful to not drop them again - it was a good thing that they were mostly plastic plates. Usually, they made dinner for four, Kido, Kano, Seto and Marry (and now, Sanae), but Shintaro and Momo constantly crashed at their hideout because they had no cooking skills, and Ayano also went there whenever she was feeling lonely at her house - but she did have cooking skills; Haruka and Ene were rarer guests, because they had their own families (at least, Ene could go on her avatar), while Hibiya and Hiyori lived far away from them.

"Shintaro, you called us because you had something you wanted to tell us, right?" Ayano said.

"Oh, it's something awesome!" Momo said, hyped.

"I called you guys because I have great news," he said, wearing a proud smile on his face, "I finished a job and the client finally paid me. I have a lot of money to spare now, and you know what it means?"

"We can take a day off!" Momo said, almost crying in happiness.

After their mother passed away, Shintaro and Momo inherited the house. He was a high school dropout, but he managed to build a small consultant firm, focused on internet security (and he wouldn't call Ene, unless for rare exceptions, because he said it would make his job too easy); it earned them a decent income, enough to sustain their lifestyle. Momo, on the other hand, quit her job as an idol in order to focus on her studies (much to the incomprehensible surprise of the people next to her - granted without her powers, she wasn't as hot as she used to be), but she still received royalties for her image.

"That is great, Shintaro!" Ayano clapped her hands, followed by congratulations from everyone else in the table. "But are you sure you want to do this for us? I mean, you might use this extra money in the future."

"Money is a thing, Ayano." Shintaro said, smiling. "We need to use it to get things that are worthy than money."

"We can go to the amusement park," Kano suggested, "It'll be Sanae's first time with us."

"Would you really invite me?" Sanae said, embarrassed.

"All work and no play, makes Sanae a dull girl." Kano said, humming.

"Of course, Sanae." Ayano said, "You're part of the family, now."

"If the president said, it's official!" Momo said, throwing her arms on the air, with everyone cheering on her.

"Thank you." Sanae looked down, a bit embarrassed, but she was smiling. Before Gensokyo, she never met someone who could really understand her; in Gensokyo, she was in a place that she could e herself, even if the people there weren't as warm as she wanted them to be; the tragedy of the loss of her home, however, allowed her to meet the Blindfold Gang - they were as much of outcasts as she was, even if they couldn't replace the warmth of Kanako and Suwako, they had a distinctive warmth of their own.

"Tea for everyone!" Marry said, returning from the kitchen with a plate with cups of tea. However, she started to wiggle down and tremble; with one strong step on the floor, she managed to recover her balance, however she couldn't stop two cups from falling over the plate. Marry closed her eyes, already lamenting on her mind yet another failure - and she was close from finally doing a perfect run, without dropping any cup.

But, what happened next surprised everyone. Like a blur, Sanae picked the cups in the mid-air; they dropped a bit of the liquid in the floor, but the cups and most of their contents, were safe in Sanae's hands.

"Sanae, that was incredible!" Seto said.

"Good catch, Sanae!" Kido said, making a thumbs up.

Sanae placed the cups at the table and looked at Marry. The smaller girl smiled at her and said, "I'll do my best next time and I won't drop the cups."

"Mary, can I ask you something?" She glanced aside. "In particular." The girl nodded and they went to her bedroom, after that.

"What did you want to know, Sanae?" Mary asked, sitting in the bed, while Sanae preferred to sit down at a chair.

"I hope you are not offended on asking about your...parents." Sanae said, hugging herself.

"Oh, don't feel like that, Sanae." She placed a hand on her mouth. She smiled and then walked to the bookshelf that was in a corner of the room and picked a book. "Would you believe if I tell you this book tells the story of my grandmother?"

"What kind of youkai was she?" Sanae said, after opening the book and reading through the first pages; since it was written like a fairy tale, she could read it in a good pace. The book just listed her as a monster, it didn't even use the word 'youkai' to refer as her.

"Huh, she was a medusa."

"But medusas come from the Greek mythology."

"My mother used to tell me that her mother traversed the entire continent searching for a calm place to live."

"But, why would she need to do that?" Sanae said, but then realization dawned on her. "Did she want to enter Gensokyo? No, Gensokyo was founded in the late 19th century and this story is clearly older than that. But I remember reading they spent 400 years erecting the barrier."

"Perhaps, she wanted to wait for it, to be finished." Marry suggested.

"That's mostly likely."

"There is also something else." Marry said, walking again to the bookshelf. She picked a book - however this was a different book: its cover seemed to be made from wood, its pages were yellow and didn't seem paper, but rather, leather. "I think this was grandma's diary. It's written in a language I don't know."

"This can only be Greek alphabet." Sanae said, while she flicked through the pages with the strange letters. "I remember Marisa showed me one of her grimoires that contained Greek words. She didn't know how to read Greek, but she used translating spells to use the grimoire."

"I always wondered if this have important information." She said, picking the book and hugging it. "I can have an insight on grandma's mind, only if I could read it. I even asked Ene to see if she could translate, but she said that she can't use internet translators because it's written in an ancient dialect."

The diary returned to its place in the bookshelf, leaving the two girls wondering on its secrets.


	4. The Second Stranger

**A.N.:** Merry Christmas, everyone!

* * *

><p>Sanae never visited an amusement park on her life. Due to her status as a priestess of Moriya Shrine, Kanako and Suwako didn't allow her to go the big cities and she rarely went to the urban area of her village. She did go to the Onbashira Festival, where she had the opportunity to eat different foods and play on different attractions - even so, it was nothing like an amusement park: the roller coast, the carousel, the free fall, the American junk food being sold freely and without any health concern, everything mesmerized the former priestess.<p>

"Freaking gajins, they know how to make such delicious food." Kano said, as he filled his mouth with donuts. When he noticed Kido giving a sideway glare at him, he controlled the amount of food he put on his mouth; she herself was quietly eating a bar of licorlice.

"So, this is candy floss," Marry said, while chewing on the pink candy, "It's so sweet and makes my mouth to itch."

"But is it good?" Seto asked, always concerned with her.

"It's a good itching sensation." She smiled.

"Here, Ene," Haruka said, holding a candied apple in front of her, "Take a bite of this."

"Alright, just let me finish this." Ene said, while typing on her cellphone. "Done." She leaned a bit to bite the apple and closed her eyes but, when she was going to bite, Haruka placed himself in front of her, giving her peek on her lips; when Ene opened her eyes, she saw herself kissing him and, after a moment of surprise, she giggled.

"Sanae, would like something?" Ayano asked, while drinking soda; Momo was beside her, eating a bag of popcorn. Sanae was still amused at how big this place was; her friends were enjoying it as well.

"I think I'll try some hamburguers." Sanae said, looking at the sandwiches food truck, with different options of hamburguers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs and other types of sandwiches. She also saw a new dish there, the cashier said it was something new in the West, called 'flitza'; but she didn't buy because Shintaro had called her attention, when talking to Ayano.

"Ayano, I'm going to the arcade." He said, pointing to the location where the videogames were located. "Play any games, Sanae?"

"I used to have an 8-bits console, but I barely remember it." Sanae said, glancing aside and caressing her dyed hair again.

"Then, you need to play some games," he then put his hand on his chin and said, "You look like someone who'd enjoy dance games. Let's take a round in Dance Dance Evolution, Sanae, I'll take easy on you."

"Lady Kanako taught me how to dance once," Sanae said, "It was necessary to learn how to make different types of summoning," but then she smiled knowgingly, "But I guess I can use it to win against you in the game."

"That's the spirit!" Shintaro smiled as well.

They passed through the different options of arcade, all of them offering a game like the shooters, fighting games, even sports, until they reached the Dance Dance Evolution arcade, with its custom floor and screen showing the commands. Sanae went to the platform of the left and Shintaro to the right. The virtual avatar, a girl with blue hair and two ponytail announced the instructions - Shintaro even looked at his phone, thinking that it reminded Ene's avatar; after checking, he dismissed the concerns, because Ene was still with Haruka.

The end of the distraction was enough for Shintaro lock his eyes on the screen, for the input of commands was about to start. Sanae looked again at Shintaro, impressed on how focused he seemed to be, hungry to earn a victory.

The music started; the blaring of J-pop started as the commands appeared. Left. Right. Left. Right. It wasn't a difficult song, so both Shintaro and Sanae were doing fine, under the eyes of Momo and Ayano. They continued following the instructions and they finished. Shintaro had the biggest score, Sanae didn't lag behind much.

"One more time?" Shintaro said, glancing at her.

"I'm just warming up." She replied, smiling.

Shintaro increased the difficulty of the next song. Now, it was again a J-pop song, but with a soft metal arrangement, that produced a faster pace of commands. Left. Right. Up. Left. Down. The sequence of commands was more complex and Shintaro started to breath more acceleratedly, while Sanae seemed to continue her pace. However, in the end, Shintaro won again, though the difference was minimal.

"You improved, huh?"

"I'm almost reaching my peak." Sanae said, stretching her arms.

"Now, the final exam!" Shintaro chose the hardest song of the list. At that moment, the song was a mix of metal, rap and J-pop; the unusual but working mixture blended into a flurry of commands that required them to move like humming birds. Shintaro couldn't handle anymore; his body ill-suited for intense physical activity gave up and he stopped, holding on the guard-rail of the platform. Now, he waited for Momo and Ayano to comfort him and telling him that he shouldn't do that and pay him a soda.

But none of that happened. When he turned to see Momo and Ayano, they were mesmerized at Sanae's performance, as well as the rest of people who were next to the arcade. Sanae moved like lightning; she wasn't missing any command, any input, and her score was skyrocketing - when the song finally reached the end, the avatar appeared: however, that time, it was Ene saying "Congratulations, Sanae! You broke the record!" She said that, making a victory dance over her score. Shintaro imagined that Ene had hacked the platform and inserted itself (his suspicions were confirmed when he heard passerbies wondering about a secret ending), but he smiled as he got up, without help.

"Sanae, I never knew that you could do that!" Momo said, hugging the new record holder.

"This was awesome, Sanae!" Ayano said, clapping her hands.

"Thank you." She bowed. "It's been a while since I could dance like that. But," she said, scratching the back of her head and smiled as if embarrassed. "But this is just a game, it's not like I won a prize from the emperor."

"Sanae, we need to celebrate everything, even if it's something seemingly small as a breaking the record of a game." Ayano explained, while they exited the arcade.

When they exited, the others were waiting at the exit, where Momo and Ayano could brag about Sanae's performance in her place, while Shintaro had to give them explanations why the master of the games lost to a newbie; the only one who didn't make an expression of surprise was Ene, for obvious reasons - but she swore she didn't rig Sanae's score.

"Guys," Seto called their attention, "I talked to Marry earlier and she said that this time she has enough courage to go to the roller coaster." He said, while holding her shoulders behind her; she held both hands together and looked down while Seto talked.

"This time," she said, encouraged by the fact Seto was the one that announced it, "This time I won't back off!" She ended with a fierce look in her eyes and with one closed fist lifted in the air; there was a fire in her eyes, it was like she was surrounded by flames and explosions in the background, the only thing missing were star-shaped red translucent glasses.

* * *

><p>"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Marry cried, her eyes closed, crouched down in the roller coaster cart.<p>

"Marry, the ride didn't even start."Kido deadpanned, having flashbacks from the last time. The girl didn't seem to pay attention to what she said.

"It's not gonna work, Seto." Kano said. In fact, only they were not yet sat down in the carts.

Ene was holding tight to the guardrail in her seat; besides her was Haruka, who had a happy expression on his face, happy because he was besides Ene; when she saw his smile, Ene smiled awkwardly as well. Behind the lovebirds, Shintaro also was calm at his seat, with Ayano beside her. Sanae was also there, though she seemed more curious than anything else, while Momo was paired with a random woman from the line whom she chatte amenities.

"C'mon, I want to go to my seat." Kano whined.

"Marry, hold me hand." Seto said, slowly picking up her delicate hand; she slowly pressed her hand against his and slowly, very slowly, took her position on the seat; she still trembled, there were small tears in the corner of her eyes and she was breathing heavily.

"It's okay, Marry." Seto said, looking at her. "You can go back if you'd like."

"I c-can't!" Marry muttered. "This is something I must do, and face its consequences."

"Excellent!" Kano said, almost jumping out of joy. "Now I can finally go with Kido-"

"I'm going with Sanae." Kido said, already sat down besides Sanae, leaving Kano with a disappointed look. Since Marry already delayed too much the ride and one person had given up, Kano ended up alone in his cart. He didn't mind, though.

Then, the ride started. The carts advanced slowly through the hike, leaving the ones who had most fear concerned. And then, it tipped and started its crazy descent.

"This is awesome, Ene!" Haruka said, throwing his arms on the air, letting the air flow take them.

"No!" She replied, holding tightly to the guardrail. Even if Ene's reaction wasn't of amusement, it was better than Marry's, whose screams were almost as loud as the noise of the cart passing through the loops and curves in ludicrous speed.

However, this didn't matter to Kano; he stared agape, ignoring the swings, at the figure that was beside him: she was a girl that wore a shirt appearing to be a dress shirt with long sleeves with black lace at the edges and her skirt gradated from a pleasant white to a mint green, and she had what looked like a gardening hat, surrounded by a yellow ribbon, which she held it dearly. Her clothes weren't as strange as herself - she had a paler shade of green hair and vibrant green eyes, though that glow seemed to hide something familiar to him; but, all just paled when he noticed the eye looking at him, held together by a blue line.

"Kano Shuuya," she said, in a rather childish voice, "There is a lot I want to talk to you."


	5. Weak Revelations

They surely had a fun day at the amusement park, however when Marry passed out from the roller coaster ride, they considered it better to go back home; thankfully Kido had foresight and had arranged for that the roller coaster be probably the last ride they'd go. So, after using Seto as Marry's ride (and he didn't complain at all), they bought the last souvenirs and exited the park, taking the bus to their respective homes.

Though, in the process, Ayano had left her bag with them and they only realized two days after the event. This time, they sent Sanae to give her bag back, mostly because it was going to be an opportunity for her to visit the Tateyama household; Kido, Kano an Seto explained that place had nostalgic feelings for them, since they were adopted by the Tateyama family, and they treated them the best way they could.

Now, it was Sanae's turn. Sanae was now an orphan, just like them, so they thought it'd be a good experience; Kano even commented to Sanae that, since they learned kindness with Kenjiro, Ayako and Ayano, it was natural to treat her with the same kindness they were treated in the past.

There she was, after following the instructions. It was a nice house, great even; Sanae barely could believe that one girl could keep a house that big. After a few moments admiring the exterior of the house, she finally knocked on the door; then, she saw the doorbell button and pressed it.

"I'm coming!" She heard Ayano's voice coming from inside. "Oh, welcome Sanae!" When Ayano opened the door, it surprised a bit Sanae: she wore an apron over an old green shirt and she held a mop on her hand; she also wasn't wearing the red scarf.

"Hi…" Sanae said, unsure on what to say to her, stepping on her house. If Sanae was already impressed with the exterior, the interior made her drop her jaw a bit: it was a huge and well-organized, this because she didn't see Kenjirou's library.

"Please, don't mind the mess," Ayano said, holding both hands together in front of her apron, "Today is cleaning day, so there is a lot of things out of their places, and be careful with the dust." Sanae nodded, while Ayano took out her apron and placed in a hanger.

"Oh, your bag, Ayano." Sanae said, handing the bag to her.

"Thank you!" She said. "Now I need to show you the house."

Ayano guided her through a tour on her house, always mentioning how she, Kano Kido and Seto had a happy life that lasted long enough; Ayano always reminisced about the good times, in which she played the role of a tokusatu hero, while Kenjiro was the bad guy chasing the kids, and she had to protect them.

The tokusatu was something that bonded the two girls; they could discuss hours about the tropes, the storylines, but what they had in common was that they both lived a plot that could fit in a show: Ayano thought that she could stop the snake that possessed her father by outsmarting him, but in the end she was the one who got outsmarted and simply lost notion of time during the Heat Daze; Sanae was living the dream in Gensokyo, but then this was taken from her, for reasons that were beyond her control. However, Ayano managed to turn her tragedy into triumph, and Sanae didn't have this opportunity yet; unless she counted the Blindfold Gang.

"...and that's how Shintaro is: he just needed someone to give a push on his life. I tried to be this person, but my...temporary death only made things worse for him." She remained silent, while she held her cup of tea; Sanae looked at her attentively, already finished her tea. "I used to have glimpses from the Outside World when I was in the Heat Daze...I thought that Ene would be the perfect woman for him, someone lively, someone who dared him to experience life... But Ene's heart belongs to Haruka." She took a sip and smiled, "But I'm glad that Shintaro stopped being a shut-in...mostly."

"He opened a firm, recently."

"Yes, now he has a job and he seems to enjoy." Ayano placed a hand over her cheek and sighed. "But now, he's not estranged from Momo anymore; she can be the woman Shintaro needs, I guess the bonds of siblings can be deeper than the bonds of lovers." She then smiled, "As long as Shintaro is happy, I'm happy, because that's what friends do, right?"

Sanae nodded. It was pretty obvious what she was implying, so she didn't comment anything.

"They say that the road to hell is paved of good intentions," Ayano said, glancing aside, "I could never expect that my sacrifice could be so vain; I could never expect that they would suffer so much from that, especially Shintaro and Kano," tears started to form around her eyes, "In one of the time loops, Shintaro killed Ene and then killed himself, and it was all my fault. They look at me as some sort of strong person, but the truth is I'm just weak." She took her hands to her face and then started to sob.

"Ayano…" Sanae said, rubbing her arm, "I know nothing about being weak. In Gensokyo, there was no space for weakness...If it weren't for the spellcard rules, there would be no barriers for the strongest youkai to enslave the weak and then destroy each other. Perhaps the amanojaku was right, even if it was for the wrong reasons."

"What are you talking about?" Ayano asked, picking up a napkin to wipe out her tears.

"See, Gensokyo used to be home for youkai, and they were stronger than humans, so the humans had to be stronger as well. This was the cycle that kept Gensokyo alive." Sanae said, taking a look at her empty cup. "However, Armageddon Day ended this cycle; strength was pointless that in day."

"Sanae…" Ayano blurted, knowing what happened to Sanae when someone mentioned those two words.

"No, don't worry, this doesn't trigger me anymore." Sanae smiled, to show that she was alright, while Ayano looked curiously at her. "Not now, at least. Ayano, you said you are weak, but can a weak person take care of three kids and make them better people? Can a weak person make friendships with outcasts from school?"

"But-"

"I know that you committed a calculation error, but you still managed to fulfill your dream, to help your friends. In the end, you were all stronger than Kuroha because you were weak; because you were weak you could know yourselves, you could know each other, and you could know how you need each other - and this is what made you strong enough to defeat him without a battle: your strength is each other. If you call this weakness, then perhaps the world need weaker persons, who can show empathy, humility, mercy, kindness in general." She stopped to chuckle and continued. "Perhaps, in order to be strong, one must be weak first? I don't know. As a goddess, this is a laughable thought, especially when this is the base of a rival faith, a God that humbled himself to the mortals, instead of mortals ascending to their levels… but perhaps this is what Kanako and Suwako were trying to teach me when they told me to solve incidents and attending the followers. Or not, I'm just tripping balls… I don't have anything anymore, only you guys, now." She ended laughing, but there was a sad edge on her laughter, probably because of all memories from her old home.

"Are you really a goddess, Sanae?" Ayano asked, without thinking.

"I used to be, you can believe me." She said, while stroking her dyed hair. "I am the last descendant of the goddess of Moriya, although a lot of my powers used to be in my blood, the Moriya Shrine was the source. But, now, I'm just a normal girl, no more different than you." She sighed. "I miss Gensokyo. Things were so much better, I could just fly and solve my problems with a shower of danmaku." But she laughed at that, to which Ayano followed.

* * *

><p>"Oh, come on!" Ene said, almost slamming the controller in the ground. Her frustrated expression contrasted with Shintaro smug smirk. The screen showed the summary of the match, in the FPS game: Shintaro won, defeating Ene one more time.<p>

"I am the Master!" Shintaro proclaimed, putting his hands on his hips and smiling, feeling like a superhero - a superhero that defeated a girl in a game.

"Sure, master." She growled between her teeth.

"Wanna get a next round?" he asked, smirking.

"No. I'm done with games for today!" She said angry; then she jumped on the other couch and checked her emails. "Oh, it's finally there!"

"What?" Shintaro grabbed her smartphone from her hands.

"Hey, give me back, or else I'll delete all your ecchi folder!" She said, but she didn't bother to get up from the couch, so she just extended her arm.

"Oh, it's related to Sanae and… what is this domain? .gh, where is it from?" He asked, giving the device back to her.

"It's from Ghana." She said, downloading the file attached.

"Ghana is where again? Africa?"

"Yeah. They have an e-waste dump there, so they deal with rebuilding of hard drive. They deal with shady stuff, but there are some specialists there. The revenge of the Third World."

"Hey," Kido called their attention, interrupting momentaneously their quarrel. "Did you guys see Kano?" They both shook their heads. "Dammit, now I have to go pay those bills by myself." And she left.

"Ene, how many times I have to tell you to not do anything under the law!" Shintaro said out loud after Kido was nowhere to be seen, even waking up Haruka, who was sleeping in a bean bag; he proceed to greet them and go to the kitchen to find something to eat. "How the hell did you meet this guy?"

"Relax, I did nothing illegal." Shintaro glared at her. "Okay, I just invaded the government database, but I'm doing this to fix it. In the end, the emperor should give me a medal." Shintaro's glare intensified. "This guy owed me a favor, anyway."

Shintaro stopped inquiring Ene on her deals with whatever shady business she had contacts with hackers around the world when he read the content of the message, overhead from Ene's shoulder.

"And then, I received a message from Hibiya, he thinks that he can invite Hiyori for the Festival." Seto said.

"Oh, that's impressive." Haruka said, eating a sandwich. "I hope they finally get together." They were talking while entering in the living room. They saw Shintaro and Ene looking at her smartphone silently. "Something wrong, Ene?"

* * *

><p>Kano was nervous. The last time she saw the girl in the roller coaster, she appeared, gave him a paper with the local of the meeting and then disappeared. The place the girl chose to talk to him did not brought good memories: it was in the roof of a building, and he knew that building. That was the same building he saw Ayano plummeting to her "death" and that the snake possessing Kenjiro's body blackmailed him. The girl looked at him, holding her third eye in her hand and creeping out the poor guy.<p>

"Who are you?" Kano asked.

"I am Koishi Komeiji." The girl replied. "And, unlike you, I am not a human. I am a satori, do you know what is a satori?" Kano shook his head in denial. "Oh, I wonder what kind of stories they tell to human children nowadays." She then pointed her third eye at him. "I know everything about you, Kano Shuuya. Your father abandoned you, while your mother abused you every day."

"Don't talk about my mother like that!" He lifted a hand, but Koishi grabbed it in the mid-air and started pressing, making Kano fall to his knees.

"You never had the backbone to stand up to your mother," she said, pressing his hands, while he winced in pain. "Thus, you accepted your punishment, always masked your feelings, becoming an specialist in lies. Let me tell you something," she whispered in his ear, "No matter how good your lies are, I can see through you like a glass. You can't lie to me, Kano. All I see is a pathetic boy who begs for care and attention." Tears started to accumulate on his face as she approached her third eye to lock onto his eyes. "Tell me, is that why you care so much for that Kido-girl? Ayano was nice with you, but Kido reminds you a lot of your mother, that's why you just let her have your way with you."

"Stop...this…" He begged.

"This is a theme for a pretentious, deep anime without budget, you know?" Koishi said, letting go of his hand. "But, independent of your feelings, I guess you want the safety of your friends, huh?" Kano didn't reply, as he massaged his hand. "It feels like the rerun of a series, that I'm watching again through your heart. Kuroha...What a fine gentleman...So, that's how you saw him...A monster covered in mystery… You never understood the reasons of monsters...It's because they don't matter." She laughed. "Hardly an insult for a youkai like me." She then looked at him, as if hovering him, and said, "Now, it's time for business."

* * *

><p><strong>A.N.:<strong> Little know fact: before Zun lolify them, satoris were huge jerks. Happy New Year!


	6. The Snake Shows His Teeth

A couple of days passed and things were normal at the hideout. They didn't receive visits for two days for reasons like school and work. Sanae didn't leave the hideout as well in those two days, but she had the feeling something was going to happen. When she saw Kido, Kano, Seto and Marry putting on their hoods, she knew something was going to happen.

"Have you finished doing the dishes, Sanae?" Kano asked.

"Oh, just two more plates." Sanae said, while putting soap on a plate.

"Oh, that's great." Then, he looked to the ceiling. Sanae knew he was going to talk about something more. "Tell me...You know things about youkai and monsters, from Gensokyo, right?"

"Sure…" she said, putting the plate down.

"So, you know how to get rid of them?"

"Yes...through exorcism…" Sanae said.

"So, you got my catch, huh?" Kano said, winking at her; Sanae nodded, slowly and actually unsure of what he was talking about.

"Put on your shrine maiden clothes, Sanae. Tonight we're going for a... walk, to visit an... acquaintance. Perhaps it's your acquaintance. I explain you in the way there."

* * *

><p>Kano told everything that happened between him and Koishi. After keeping Kuroha's secret for so long, he swore that he would never do that again, even if it meant putting his friends in danger; they all agreed that it was the right thing to do - no secrets between them. Thus Kano relayed Koishi's plan to use an abandoned building for her to build a new house - a New Palace of Spirits, as she put it; if she wanted so much a new house, then why would she need him? She angrily replied that the reasons of the monsters are irrelevant, and she talked about rebuilding the Palace of Spirits.<p>

So, there she was, sitting in an old chair that she probably found in a heap of trash. She was slouched backwards in her seat, her legs crossed, head leaning on her wrist and a wry smile on her face. The old building wasn't condemned, but it really was abandoned; dust and spider webs were everywhere, with unused sacks of cement and windows without glasses, right away in the ground floor; it was mostly empty. It seemed that the construction company abandoned it in the early stages, perhaps the money had dried, perhaps it had problems with red tap, but it didn't really matter.

"Welcome back, Kano... And it seems that you didn't follow my orders." From the shadows, the other members of the Blindfold Gang emerged; all were there, including Momo and Shintaro who entered through a broken door in the left; Haruka and Ene entered through a window; Kido, Seto and Marry waited until Koishi see through Kano in order to emerge from the shadows. Now, they were in a gang.

"Heh, I know that it's pointless to lie to you." He said, putting his hands on his pockets. "Why don't you read my mind to see the surprise we brought to you."

"Oh…" she raised an eyebrow. "You brought her."

From the shadows, Sanae Kochiya emerged. She wore her shrine maiden clothes, the ones that she retired when she exited Gensokyo; now, she decided to put them back together, along with her gohei. She said, holding tightly her gohei, "Koishi, it's you."

"Sanae Kochiya," she said, still keeping her position in the chair, "Did you come here to exorcise me?"

"Koishi, you know that we didn't do this anymore in Gensokyo." She glanced aside. "Our home is no more and…" She stopped to talk when she noticed Koishi's third eye open; she gaped for a few seconds before saying, "Koishi! Your eye is open!"

"Yes, it is." Koishi got up from her seat and started walking up to Sanae. "The destruction of Gensokyo was sad...But it was an opportunity for me to be restored to my ancient glory. I am a new Koishi Komeiji."

"I thought I was alone," Sanae smiled, walking to hear as well, "But I finally found someone who can share my pain."

"Yes, come to me, Sanae." Koishi smirked, preparing herself to embrace her. They both hugged, but soon Sanae noticed something was wrong with her.

"Sanae, watch out!" She heard someone screaming from behind and she forcefully pushed Koishi back.

*BAM!*

A shot was fired. Ene's pistol, which she kept as a souvenir from Kenjiro's lair, was still smoking. And there was a knife in the floor, while Koishi rubbed her hand.

"You are not Koishi!" Sanae cried. "You don't have her presence! You have no soul!"

"That's why I have no fear!" The so-called Koishi started to cackle, and it resounded through the entire building. "Koishi is dead!" She hollered. "She died the moment she closed her eyes! Now, I'm just making a favor to her body."

The members of the gang gasped.

"It's him!" Momo cried.

"No! It can't be!" Haruka said, taken back. "You should be dead!"

"On the contrary! Where there is desire, there is a wish." He said. "And this shell was _pure _desire! And this body has a bonus: I can see everything your pitiful human minds are thinking." He then looked at Seto with disdain. "You had so much power, but you just wasted. You're just so weak!" Seto glared at him; this actually scared Marry and Kido who were next to him, because it needed a lot to make Seto get irritated about something. "Your weak human limitations didn't allow you take full advantage of your eye power. The second biggest waste of potential that I ever saw. The first prize belongs to your virtual friend."

Ene, acting on instinct, leveled her pistol at the satori and shot at the forehead. The so-called Koishi budged, black blood dripping, but she continued laughing. "You can't hurt me, Takemono!"

"Don't call me that!" Ene said, shooting even more at the so-called Koishi.

"So, you have forsaken this identity, huh?" She said, her body perforated by the bullets, but she just shrugged them off.

"Who is _it_?" Sanae asked, walking backwards.

"He's Kuroha!" Shintaro said.

"Kuroha, eh?" he said, still with Koishi's voice. "You still don't know my name. It doesn't matter because dead bodies don't need to acquire knowledge." They glared at him. "Oh, let me put my fancy clothes." Upon saying that, snakes protruded from his flesh, encircling his possessed body.

Koishi's girlish yellow-and-green dress turned into a long, silky black one that reached to the ground and seemed to sprout from puddles of disgusting black goo. The protruding snakes seemed to look like a multitude of blood-covered frills on the dress, and in place of the yellow frilly sleeves and shoes were now black elbow-long gloves and kneesocks that glowed a sickly green. Of course, they weren't the only parts that glowed, for the mutation had yet to be completed. Multitudes of snakes started piercing out of Koishi's back, slithering incomprehensibly, yet still forming a structure resembling wings. It was a squeamish sight to see the creatures crawl, but most disturbing of all was how they were able to slither across Koishi's heart with ease. For her Third Eye was no longer there but pasted across her forehead, staring blackened like the two eyes Kuroha actually used to savor in his enemies' terrified looks.

"What did you do with Koishi?" Sanae cried.

"Oh, look, I finally have breasts!" He said, looking down and feeling his breasts. "I never possessed a female body, so I always wanted to feel how it's like."

"Answer my question, you monster!"

"Oh, there is no need to be rude, Sanae. My name is not 'monster'." He said, holding both hands together. "My name doesn't matter for lowly humans, but I let you call me Kuroshi now. Kuroishi doesn't have a nice ring to it."

"We need to run." Marry said, slowly backing away from where Kuroshi was. However all exits were blocked by walls made of darkness.

"None of it, half-breed!" Kuroshi said, while lifting his arms. "I intend to start something new at here, and it will involve bloodshed. And you," he pointed to Sanae, "Goddess of the Moriya Shrine. I have something special planned for you; but, first, I have to kill your so-called friends. After all, what kind of friend tries to ravage your past, right Takemono?"

"What are you saying?"

"Well," Ene said, rubbing her arm and glancing aside. "I kind of looked up your name in the internet...and the government database."

"Do you want me to have the honor to reveal her secret?" Kuroshi asked, in a condescending tone.

"Shut up!" Ene snapped. "I'd never let you do this to her."

"What are you talking about?"

"Sanae, I don't know how to tell you this, but...the truth is…you don't exist."

"What?"

"At first, it was just a small exercise, looking up your name in Google is normal, I do this with all my friends," Ene said, still embarrassed, "Until I hacked into the government database. See, I discovered a deleted entry in the national citizen register, you know, where your number goes at the moment you receive your ID card. I managed to restore it and there was nothing about you, rather…" she picked up her phone. "It contained the information about a couple, named Sasao and Suzuka Kochiya. Now do you remember when I asked you your birthday?"

"I think…"

"They died on the same day of your birthday."

Sanae was silent for a moment.

"It's not like I'm trying to imply anything bad," Ene said, glancing aside. Haruka held a hand on her shoulder, in order to assure her. "But, you share a surname with them, Sanae, and they died on the same day you were born. Again, it's like I'm trying to imply anything, but-"

"My parents are dead." Sanae said.

"Calm down, I didn't say that they were your parents."

"Sanae, Sanae, you forget that I'm possessing a satori." Kuroshi said. "I can listen to your thoughts, your memories, even the ones that you forgot or you didn't even know you had… Remember when Suwako said that you had a great purpose? She used to tell you this almost everyday when you were a baby. She used to tell that you were separated for a greater purpose. Heh, in the end, the differences between gods and youkai in Gensokyo are feeble, because they would do anything to get what they want, no matter how petty it is."

"Okay," Sanae said, her expression turning dull, "Now, you are starting to piss me off."

"Funny you mentioned that, because when Koishi was causing troubles on your shrine, you didn't even bother in doing anything and called the other incident solvers. You didn't go to solve the earlier incident in the underground, Kanako forbade you; she said it was for your good, but in the end she was afraid that other satori girl would spill all the beans."

"Shut up!" Sanae cried. The other members of the gang, especially Ene, looked in apprehension.

"Have you heard about the journey of the hero, Sanae?" Sanae didn't reply, but her fists were shaking in anger. "It says that the protagonist of the story usually have a mythical birth, a symbology so strong that it's been influencing writers all over the world to write what essentially boils down to write the same story all over; they're so unimaginative that they spend billions every year to watch the same crap. But humans love it, they love seeing the hero slay the monsters - they think it was because of the hard work of the hero, but the hero always had its power received from the goddess; merit is nothing but a myth, they love being lied that with hard work you'll reach a place in life. You were chosen by Suwako and Kanako to be a hero, to inherit her powers, but you had to cast off the girl you used to be. Without it, you'd be a normal child, having two doting parents, who knows if you'd have a brother or a sister, but you'd never have such amazing powers. You'd just be bloody normal - and that's what you feared most, huh?"

Sanae was breathing heavily, her expression was of a anger grown out of hate, that was even starting to scare the gang.

"You are a hero, but you need to be more than that," Kuroshi then extended his hand and said, "Accept the sacrifice of Sasao and Suzuka Kochiya to the goddess that raised you and become Sanae Kochiya, goddess of Moriya Shrine and the Blindfold Order!"

"Blindfold Order?" Kido asked.

"Oh, I guess Kuroha went freaking insane." Kano commented.

"Yeah, and more dangerous." Shintaro said.

"Kanako and Suwako were kind gods," Sanae said. "They were not perfect, they had their flaws, but they loved me." At that moment, something happened: a blue aura started to surround her.

"Is Sanae glowing?" Marry asked.

"You don't have the _right _to suggest that they sacrificed two innocent people to choose me, whatever you mean with it."

"C'mon, this is all in a day business of a god." Kuroshi laughed. "Don't you study mythology? A god is basically a human that has no restrains - in the end, a god is just a monster with a proper public relations staff… Mortals are just little toys, when they aren't the lunch," then he smirked, "Just like your parents were."

"Shut up!" Sanae jumped, with inhuman strength and fell down on Kuroshi. She tried to punch him, but she missed when he tilted his head; however, it made a hole in the ground. The monster turned into a shadow and then he emerged a distance away from Sanae; he grabbed a stone that was half of his height and threw at her, but she broke it with a single punch.

"Impressive!" Kuroshi said. "Aren't you going to use your paper-on-a-stick?"

"If you want to, here it is yours!" Sanae lifted her gohei; waves of hot pink and blue energy started to swirl around her and converging on her gohei. Then, a star of energy formed above the tip of the gohei. Then, with all strength she had, she tossed the flaming star at Kuroshi.

He made a surprised face and quickly dissolved into a shadow. When he reformed, he saw the strike made a hole on the window and there was debris around it. He turned around and saw Sanae again; her hair was disheveled, and her expression in her face.

"It's been a while since I last saw the wrath of a goddess." Kuroshi said.

Sanae ignored his quip and lifted her gohei again; this time, she summoned stacks of light from the ground; the stacks emerged, destroying the ground at where Kuroshi was, knocking him over. However, the entire structure started to falter.

"Sanae!" Marry cried. "Stop!"

"Sanae, we're still here!" Kido said.

"Huh?" Sanae said, as if snapping out of a trance.

"Sanae, we need to leave now!" Shintaro cried, as the other members of the gang rushed to leave the unstable building. They were already on the street when the building started to tumble down, lifting a cloud of dust.

Sanae, after breathing heavily due to the exertion, looked at the fallen building, hoping that Kuroshi was gone along with it. Then, she looked at her friends: they were actually scared from her and her powers.

"Well," Kano walked to her, "I guess that we have no doubts about your powers anymore." And he smiled. This actually helped to ease up the situation.

"I'm deeply sorry that I get yourselves in danger." She bowed. "Please, forgive me! I got carried away."

"It's okay, Sanae, but, please, don't scare us like that again." Ayano said.

"But I shouldn't be able to use my powers." Sanae said, looking at her own hands. "And I don't even remember myself being capable of that. A world without spellcard rules is really dangerous."

"Sanae," Ene called her, "I need to apologize for digging up your story without your permission. I got curious and I did get carried away."

"No need to apologize, Ene." Sanae said, looking down. "It's me who should know better than to fall to that snake's taunts. You said that this couple shared a surname with me; perhaps they were my parents, perhaps not. Perhaps, they had an accident and I was the only survivor, so Kanako and Suwako took me in." She then looked at Ene. "Please, continue your research. It would be great if I knew how it ended."

"Guys I'm sure we'll have a lot of stories to tell," Kano said, "But can we get the heck out of here before the cops arrive?"

* * *

><p><strong>A.N.:<strong> Remember when I said that this was kind of an AU of Clockwork Corpse Carnival, in dA? In CCC, after spooky events, Koishi turned into Leidensblick, so here she turned into Leidensblick as well, because Kuroha possessed her. Kigurou-Enkou made a special design of her for TTS.


	7. Equilibrium

The following hours were tense. They were mostly sure that dropping a building on Kuroha (or Kuroshi) wouldn't kill him - if not even Konoha's wish killed him, what else would? However, they always believed that Kuroha would try to find a way to return, because the Heat Haze was still mysterious as hell, in the literal sense.

Thus, the most obvious thing they did was calling Hibiya, which everyone did at the same time. After congesting his line, they agreed that Momo would call him, since they were kind of closer. When Momo called him, he told that they woke him up in the middle of the night. Then, when Momo explained that Kuroha was back, he screamed and said that he would call by the morning because he just woke up his father and he was going to talk to them in the morning, but he didn't turn off before telling her that he wouldn't sleep on that night.

No one did, anyway.

The thought of reliving their loops was too much to allow them a night of sleep. Sanae didn't want to sleep as well - she had to figure out how she regained her powers and how to control them before they could cause trouble. At the moment, she had a cup of tea in her front; instead of drinking it, she tried to move the water creating breezes through her power - a simple exercise she used to test her abilities even since she was a child.

"So, how are you doing, Sanae?" Marry asked; she rubbed her arm.

"I haven't feel anything different back then," she replied, while the tea remained idle. "See, whenever I used my powers, I didn't actually feel the power surrounding me; it was like a trance in which I was always fully aware of what happened, like a paradox. I mean, earlier I wasn't even aware of how much destruction I was causing there."

"I can relate to that." Marry replied. "My mom told me to never look people in the eyes, afraid that my medusa powers could bring problems; but then I realized that this wasn't the case, that I could look into people without turning them on stones." Then, she stopped and continued in a lower voice. "Again, _maybe _I still have my powers." Sanae nodded; she wondered if Marry would be happy in Gensokyo.

She shook her head; she didn't want to think about Gensokyo. The only thing that remained from there was her and Koishi and now there was a snake possessing one of its most iconic inhabitants. Granted, what the snake said about her and Koishi was true: in the end, she never really bothered about Koishi and now she lamented the wasted opportunity - unfortunately everyone in Gensokyo agreed that there was little they could do to help the poor satori, no wonder that she accepted whatever the snake proposed.

"Guys," Kano shouted, "We have a meeting now!" Sanae and Marry went to the living room, where everyone waited for them.

"I know that everyone is concerned with the return of our adversary," Ayano said; her voice was enough for everyone stop talking and pay attention on what she said. "But, let's stay calm, we can't enter into despair."

"Alright, let's see the options," Shintaro said, asking the word, "We can't simply shoot Kuroha - or Kuroshi, because that body allows him to resist bullets; further, if we killed that body, he would just get another." Haruka shuddered at those words, while Ene tried to comfort him by hugging him. "Sanae, you're the youkai exterminator, tell us what you think."

"Uhm...well…" Sanae glanced at both sides. "Youkai extermination in Gensokyo merely meant a danmaku duel abiding by the spellcard rules, they were meant to create a better way to solve human-youkai conflicts… but I still know how we exorcised youkai, by placing amulets and making rituals. However, we didn't have anything specific against satoris, and I have to admit that a normal ritual of exorcism might not work against him."

"We need to figure out a way to beat him, the power to read minds is just too dangerous for anyone." Seto said, with a determined expression on his face; for him, it was personal.

"I can try to prepare something, that might work," Sanae said, "In the old shrine sure we had scrolls that could create an amulet powerful enough," she then placed both hands over her face, "But, again, it's gone."

"Guys," Haruka said, placing a hand in front of his mouth in order to suppress a yawn, "Perhaps we need to call down a day. I just received a message from mother, she's concerned because it's already 4AM."

"Oh, soon, it'll be dawn." Marry said, holding her cheeks.

"Yes, and I'll have to explain her that I'm not doing naughty things with Ene."

"Too much information!" Ene said, in a huge blush and slamming her boyfriend strong enough to make him fall unconscious. "Oh, sorry, Haruka!" she said, fanning him with her own hand.

"Well, he did say he needed to sleep." Kano said and yawned, "You know what? Me too. Sanae put a good scare on Kuroha for the time being, so we need to take advantage to plan something."

"Kano is right." Ayano said, and everyone paid attention to him; Kano became giddy for being praised by her. "Taking a break is as important as working. We'll think of something, I'm sure of it." Everyone agreed and tried to sleep, in spite of the tension in the air – they knew Kuroha would return.

* * *

><p>The sound of the Koishi's possessed voice didn't leave their ears for the next few days. While Sanae worked on a way to counter the snake, Ayano decided to pass the week in the hideout, as a precaution; they made sure to not go out in the streets alone and they always kept contact with each other; Hibiya also sent messages about his and Hiyori's situation – he didn't tell Hiyori that Kuroha was back, because he didn't want to scare her, an attitude that others made sure to chastise him.<p>

Sanae was still on the living room, occupying a table, drawing whatever Shinto symbols she knew in whatever paper sheets she managed to get (granted they recognized the kanji for snake), so few people bothered her – she was even using a pencil and ink; sometimes Marry looked at those symbols with a certain apprehension, as in that moment: there was something that made her body alert when she saw those symbols, it didn't matter how much she tried to rationalize, saying they were just inoffensive drawings, she knew that they were more than that. So, she looked attentively, just in case of...something.

"Marry, there is something I want to talk to you."

"Ah!" She jumped out of the sofa; when she recovered from the tumble, she saw that it was Ene who called her attention. "Ene, what are you doing here?"

"Marry, I said I need to talk to you." She said; Haruka also waved to her, while he talked to Kano.

"Oh, tell me, Ene." She said. "Please, let me bring the drinks."

"Thanks, Marry, but we won't stay here for too much because me and Haruka still have classes." Ene said, and then stopped to yawn. "We have to let for another occasion, I'm so tired and we still have school." It was early in the morning, but it helped that Marry was a morning person, in contrast with the others (Sanae was so pumped up with the amulets that she remained the entire night awake and Kano decided to watch the house, just to make sure).

"I understand."

"Ok, so let me tell: see, my father has a cousin who is a professor at a university in Osaka, and he said they invited a foreign professor to give a short course on Classical Western Languages."

"And what does it mean?"

"He said that man can read old Greek as if it were the morning newspaper, so he can tell us what's written in your grandmother's diary."

"Oh," her eyes widened, "That's wonderful! But he must be a very busy person, are you sure he will have time?"

"Yep, convincing him will be the least of the problems," Ene said, smiling awkwardly and scratching the back of her hair, "I'm actually afraid he might snatch your grandmother's diary."

"He won't do that, silly." Marry said, making Ene smiling.

"Me and Haruka will get the train to Osaka tomorrow and then we'll meet him there."

"Alright, I'll get you her diary." She said and went to her room; but that required passing through where Sanae was making amulets. And that made Marry stopped on her tracks, like a deer staring at the flashlights.

"Marry, are you okay?" Sanae asked, finally noticing her friend acting strange, while holding a freshly painted amulet on her hand.

"C-can you turn those...things to the other side?" Marry muttering, immobile and looking at the amulet with wide eyes.

"Are you afraid of it?" Sanae asked.

"Kind of…"

"Yes! They're working!" Sanae almost leapt of joy, but then she looked at the scared Marry and said, "Oh, I almost forgot, if they can hurt Kuroshi, they might hurt you, sorry." She moved the table to somewhere else, while Ene helped her bringing the amulets. This rather small action actually helped to relieve Marry, even though the amulets still scared her.

After Ene and Haruka left, with Azami's diary, Sanae decided to talk to Marry about her.

"Marry, you need to be careful," Sanae continued, "We need those amulets to stand a chance against Kuroshi. Your half-youkai heritage makes you fear them, but they shouldn't hurt you because you also have human heritage, if you believe so."

"How?"

"Youkai are different from humans," Sanae glanced aside, "You might know of it; you were already a centennial before some of our parents were born." Marry nodded. "Youkai or monsters draw their power from belief, so only weapons based on belief, legend and similar concepts can hope to decisively hurt a youkai."

"Decisively?"

"Well, for example: if you unload a machine gun on a youkai, it won't kill it, but I think it'll hurt a lot. Anyway, the amulets won't hurt, just trust me."

Then, Sanae picked up one amulet; Marry froze again when she saw the piece of paper. "Now, Marry, you'll have to trust me; don't listen to your youkai instincts, silence them for a moment, let your human mind speak to you; you have both, let them cooperate, find equilibrium."

Marry closed her eyes and concentrated; she didn't open her eyes for two minutes, while she held tightly the board of her dress.

"You can open your eyes now."

Marry gasped when she opened her eyes: there were amulets in her arms. She thought of fearing them again, feeling a slight itching in her skin - but she refused to fear it and she remembered that her human side didn't need to fear it; slowly, she took out the amulets and placed on her side.

"Very good, Marry!" Sanae said. "Remember, equilibrium is the key." She then glanced at the ceiling, "And this is something I need to tell to myself." Marry nodded; she knew Sanae was referring to that night incident.

"Life is a constant learning process, isn't it?" Marry said.

"Sure it is." Sanae said, stroking gently Marry's enormous hair, to which she laughed.

* * *

><p>"Kano, are you sure you still want to stay awake?" Ayano asked. "You need to rest, even Sanae returned to sleeping normally after she made those amulets."<p>

"Please, don't worry, Ayano." Kano said, sat down on his chair, his arms crossed. "I'm the only one who's not working or studying, so I'm the one who should stay on watch." The dark circles under his eyes were prominent, but he dismissed Ayano's concerns taking another sip of coffee.

"I see." She let out a sigh. "Please take care, no one request this."

Kano muted upon her words. Nobody asked Ayano to kill herself to stop Kuroha in the time loops.

"I…" he said, with difficulty, "I-I will buy some security equipment tomorrow. This will be the last night I'm going to stay awake."

"Thank you." Ayani smiled, holding both hands together. Kano smiled at that.

The hours passed in the night, while Kano watched videos in his cellphones to pass time, without headphones in order to pay better attention to what happened in the house. He wanted to get Kuroshi, so much that he had a couple of amulets just in case the monster appeared.

Then, he heard something breaking the window. He jumped out of the chair and said, "Who's there?" When he looked, there was a cylinder and it started to release a green gas. "What?" After breathing a while, Kano clumped down on the floor, unconscious.


End file.
